News, dvd and blu-ray reviews

Looker Blu-ray Review

“Looker” is a flawed, but highly entertaining sci-fi film.

Michael Crichton may be best known for being a high profile author but he also worked in film and television. 1981’s “Looker” is one of the projects that he wrote and directed. The story of this murder mystery sci-fi film/techno thriller revolves around a plastic surgeon (Dr. Larry Roberts) who has been using his surgical skills on 4 models/commercial actresses wanting to look perfect. When the women begin to be killed off, Larry decides to investigate matters himself while also trying to help and potentially save one of the actresses/patients named Cindy. As Larry snoops around, he discovers the murders are linked to an ad research company named Digital Matrix Inc. Moreover, the company is working on advanced technology for shady purposes. As if that wasn’t enough, Larry becomes a suspect in the murders even though he is completely innocent. Who is the real murderer? How does Digital Matrix Inc. tie into the murders? All is revealed in the end.

Despite being obviously dated in terms of technology, it’s fascinating to see what Michael Crichton was pondering in terms of the future. In many respects, he was spot on with some topics as “Looker” delves into concepts about ads, CGI, people being glued to their screens, computers, the strive for perfection, corporate manipulation and so forth. It’s rather miraculous how forward thinking Crichton was and it’s even more impressive how so much of this film is still relevant today.

As intriguing as the movie is, it is not without its flaws. This is very much an 80’s film through and through in terms of the synth music, style, the production design, and filmmaking. Granted, it can be a bit goofy at times and the script has many questionable character actions and plot holes, but the big ideas and entertainment value outweigh the shortcomings.

Cast wise, Albert Finney steals the show here as Dr. Larry Roberts. He gives such a charismatic performance here. Susan Dey does a fine job as Cindy who gets roped into the whole fiasco. James Coburn is a legendary actor to be sure, but he doesn’t have a ton to do here. He doesn’t give a poor performance by any means, it’s just not the kind of role to do much with.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 2.4:1 1080p. How does it look? A fuzzy albeit solid hi-def transfer.

About DVD Corner

DVDCorner.net’s blog contains reviews of the latest DVD and Blu-ray discs, disc news, as well as reviews of other media items such as graphic novels, books, board/card games, and more. DVDCorner has been around for nearly 16 years now and this is our latest evolution. We are not affiliated with any other website that contains DVDCorner in its title nor do we sell DVDs or Blu-rays. We only review titles sent to us from different studios. Thanks for dropping by from all of us at DVDCorner.net.